Rice and Austin Richardson
By Kaitlin Candelaria
Matt Condra lost his mother 20 years ago in November to breast cancer. He was a senior in high school at the time and had to move in with a friend while his mother traveled between New York and Texas to receive treatment before she passed away.
“I thought this would be a good opportunity to honor my mother and all the other women who have fought breast cancer and also to raise awareness, to increase breast cancer education and early screening,” Condra said. “The American Cancer Society is really just a great group and breast cancer awareness month is just a good opportunity to raise awareness.”
Condra, a Mountain Brook resident, and his wife, Trissy, have two children – Davis, a student at Crestline Elementary School, and Betsy, who is four years old. He cites his daughter and his sisters as being sources of inspiration for his involvement with the campaign because he knows that breast cancer can run in families.
“My mother was only 55 years old when she passed away, which is extremely young,” Condra said. “Any time you have a goal to raise money, that within itself is a challenge, but I think that breast cancer has affected enough people that it hopefully touches a nerve.”
Condra is one of more than two dozen men and women working on the Real Men Wear Pink fundraising campaign this year. The campaign will begin Oct. 1 with a kick-off party at Carrigan’s in downtown Birmingham. All of the Real Men Wear Pink participants are invited to walk the pink carpet and listen to speakers who will discuss what it means to the breast cancer community to have this group supporting the campaign. The campaign will wrap up Oct. 29.
